Timberwolves-Nets Preview

Posted Dec 19 2015 5:56PM

(AP) - Minnesota Timberwolves coach Sam Mitchell had to catch himself on more than one occasion during games this season with a youthful team.

When the game was getting tight, one of his young players would make a mistake. Zach LaVine might rush a pump fake on his way to the basket and get called for traveling. Andrew Wiggins might force a shot in traffic. Shabazz Muhammad might lose track of his man on the weak side and get beat for a layup.

Sometimes the hard-nosed interim coach will lose it, letting them have it in frustrated postgame addresses. More often, he tries to take a deep breath and remind himself about the youthful inexperience of his team. The lumps they're taking now are part of a painful but necessary process, one which continues Sunday night on the road against the Brooklyn Nets.

"I have to rein myself in sometimes," Mitchell said. "Sometimes I get a little overzealous or excited when we beat Atlanta, beat Chicago, beat some of these teams. I have to remind myself that Andrew Wiggins is 20. Zach LaVine, Karl-Anthony Towns, guys we're leaning on are 20 years old. But I'm pleased that we're getting better. I think everyone can see that."

The Timberwolves were one of the surprise teams of the league early in the season after getting off to an 8-8 start that included impressive road wins at Atlanta, Chicago and Miami. The flurry had their long-suffering fans - who haven't watched their team play in a playoff game since 2004 - hopeful that the longest-running postseason drought in the league was coming to an end.

They have lost eight of 10 games since then, dropping down to 10-16 and 12th place in the muddled Western Conference with home losses to Denver, Portland and Orlando in that stretch.

The Timberwolves, and many executives and coaches around the league, believe the end of those struggles is near. Wiggins and Towns - the last two No. 1 overall picks - look like future stars. LaVine has made huge strides as a combo guard. Add in Muhammad, Gorgui Dieng and Ricky Rubio and the Wolves have one of the most promising young cores in the league.

Their top three scorers - Wiggins (21.3 points per game), Towns (15.4) and LaVine (14.8) - have a chance to become the first trio of teammates in league history to average 15 points in a season they started as 19 or 20-year-olds.

Oklahoma City in 2008-09 with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook and the 1996-97 Timberwolves with Kevin Garnett and Stephon Marbury are the only teams with two players hitting that mark.

Garnett, Tayshaun Prince and Andre Miller are here to help the kids through the adversity.

Among the concerns to address is the youngsters' play on defense, which had gotten so bad recently that Mitchell was forced to return the veteran Prince to the starting lineup for stability.

"At some point they're going to get it, but they're not going to get it overnight," Mitchell said. "If they did, we'd be the first team in history with a bunch of 20-year-olds that would have gotten it before anybody else. I'd like to think I can coach, but I realize I'm not that good. Some things are going to take time."

And as hard as it is for fans to remain patient, it's even more difficult for the players.

"We're fed up with it," LaVine said. "It's not like we like losing. We won 16 games last year. It's really annoying. We're going out there to win. We just need to learn how to put it together."

The Nets (7-19) aren't doing any better. They've lost four straight overall and eight in a row on the road.

Their road record fell to 1-12 with Friday's 104-97 defeat at Indiana despite Jarrett Jack's 26 points, two off his season high. Jack was 3 of 6 from 3-point range following a 4-of-18 slump.

Brooklyn is the league's worst 3-point shooting team at 31.3 percent, also ranking last in 3s made (130) and attempted (416).

These teams have split the last six meetings, with the Nets winning 122-106 at Minnesota on March 16 in the most recent one.

An injured Garnett missed that game, so this will be his first playing against the team with which he spent a disappointing year and a half before being traded to the Timberwolves for Thaddeus Young at last season's trade deadline.

Copyright 2015 by STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited

Towns has 24 points, 10 rebounds as Wolves win in Brooklyn

By BRIAN MAHONEYPosted Dec 20 2015 5:53PM

NEW YORK (AP) Karl-Anthony Towns loved performing in front of his home fans, especially in the building where his NBA dream was realized.

Towns had 24 points and 10 rebounds in the arena where he was taken with the No. 1 pick in the June draft, and the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Brooklyn Nets 100-85.

The New Jersey product, who had dinner with his parents Saturday and thought his grandmother was in the crowd, said he was ecstatic even early in the game, before his shots started falling.

"It felt like I was at the park out here tonight," he said, "just having a blast, having fun and no matter what happened."

He learned later his grandmother was not there. Towns said he purchased League Pass for so she could watch all his games on TV.

He added that she wanted him to play baseball for the New York Yankees, but nobody can question his choice now, nor the one the Timberwolves made when they selected the 7-footer.

"I was just in the hallway warming up before the game and I remember walking through that hallway right when I just got drafted to the Minnesota Timberwolves and just (being) so happy. Brings back so many memories, Barclays does," Towns said. "Madison Square Garden may have my heart since I was a child but Barclays is where my life really started."

Gorgui Dieng added 20 points and 10 boards to lead a strong bench unit that blew the game open in the fourth quarter. Andrew Wiggins scored 16 points and Ricky Rubio had 15 assists.

Brook Lopez had 20 points, 12 rebounds and five assists for the Nets, who dropped their fifth straight.

"It's nothing Xs or Os or anything like that," Lopez said. "It was just energy and effort."

Kevin Garnett was scoreless but grabbed seven rebounds in his first visit to Brooklyn since the Nets dealt him after 1 1/2 seasons to Minnesota for Thaddeus Young at the trade deadline.

The Wolves led nearly the whole way in their second straight victory. They were up 10 after one quarter and that was still the lead heading to the fourth, before a 12-3 spurt featuring two 3-pointers from Kevin Martin turned it into a 91-72 rout.

Rubio traced the Wolves' strong play to the second half of their loss Wednesday to the Knicks, when they nearly erased a huge deficit.

"I would say the last six quarters before this game were where this team wants to be and today was more of the same," he said. "We controlled the game from the beginning until the end."

Martin had 16 points and fellow reserve Zach LaVine scored 10.

TIP-INS

Timberwolves: It was the first of two straight games for Garnett against his former teams. On Monday, the Timberwolves visit Boston, where he won an NBA championship in 2008. ... Minnesota made its second trip to New York in five days. The Wolves lost to the Knicks on Wednesday before returning home to beat Sacramento on Friday.

Nets: Young played for each team last season, helping the Wolves win an early-season game in Brooklyn and the Nets win a trip to Minnesota in March. ... The 1 p.m. start was the earliest for a non-Christmas game in Brooklyn. The Nets had noon starts at home against Boston in 2012 and Chicago the next year.

"Condolences? I didn't know there was a death," said Towns, who led the Wildcats to 38 straight wins and the Final Four last season. "I think the worst thing that's happened to this year's team is last year's team, just how much pressure we put on them because of what we were able to accomplish last year."

ALL ABOUT THE `E's

Coach Lionel Hollins blamed himself for not having the Nets ready to play, but added their problems were energy and effort, not tactics.

"That's what this business has always been about," he said. "You can't guarantee you're going to make shots every night, but you can go out and compete every night."

UP NEXT

Timberwolves: Visit Boston on Monday.

Nets: Head to Chicago on Monday.

Copyright 2015 by STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited